''The Kids from Room 402'' is an
animated series
An animated series is a set of animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can have eith ...
produced by
CinéGroupe
CinéGroupe is a Canadian animation studio based in Montreal, Quebec. The company was founded in 1974. Its shows and films have been seen in over 125 countries.
Notable franchises from CinéGroupe include: ''What's with Andy?'', ''The Kids from R ...
and
Saban Entertainment
Saban Entertainment, Inc. (along with Saban International; currently operating under the legal name is BVS Entertainment, Inc.) was a worldwide-served independent American-Israeli television production company formed in 1980 by Haim Saban and ...
that premiered on October 9, 1999 on the
Fox Family Channel
The American cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and six different name changes) during its h ...
in the USA, and on August 29, 2000 on
Teletoon
Teletoon (stylized as TELETOON) is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by Teletoon Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment. Its name is a portmanteau of "television" and "cartoon". The channel primarily broadcasts an ...
in Canada. It consists of 52 half-hour episodes, the last of which aired in 2000, with reruns airing until 2005. The series was also seen in Latin America and Europe on
Fox Kids, with the latter region still airing the series after the Fox Kids channels were purchased by
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
and changed their name to
Jetix; remaining on their schedule until the Jetix channels were once again rebranded as
Disney XD
Disney XD is an American pay television channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven yea ...
.
The series is focused primarily on a group of elementary school students. Miss Graves, their teacher, is usually shown as an interlocutor in the issues and injustices that are inflicted upon the students, whether the dilemmas be internal or external. Each episode usually ends with a substantiated moral or lesson resulting from such aforementioned situations.
The series is based on the 40-page
children's book
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
Children's ...
''Gracie Graves and The Kids from Room 402'' by
and
Michael Paraskevas
Michael Paraskevas (born 1961) is an American illustrator, cartoonist, and animation producer best known for co-creating along with his mother Betty in the Canadian animated children's television series '' Maggie and the Ferocious Beast''. The sh ...
, published in 1995. This was retitled in 2000 as simply "The Kids from Room 402" to match the series.
The animated series was developed for television by Lesa Kite and Cindy Begel, who wrote all 52 episodes.
Characters
Kids from Room 402
*Nancy Francis (voiced by
Mindy Cohn
Mindy Cohn (born May 20, 1966) is an American actress, who appeared on VH1's List of "100 Greatest Kid Stars". She starred as Natalie Green in the sitcom '' The Facts of Life'' from 1979 to 1988, and is known for voicing Velma Dinkley in the ''S ...
/Patricia Rodriguez) - Nancy is a redheaded girl with horn-rimmed glasses. Nancy has snobbish tendencies and though is spending a lot of time trying to make herself popular is a good learner being a top student being a straight-A student. Also she always trying to fit in and helps Jesse out a lot because he is picked on. Albeit good-natured, she is sometimes bossy. She is always trying to befriend Penny, but she is unsuccessful at that. Sometimes will ended up being "friends" with Polly McShane who she resists instead. She is the main protagonist as well as Jesse.
*Jesse McCoy (voiced by Spencer Klein/
Shawn Pyfrom
Shawn Caminiti Pyfrom (born August 16, 1986) is an American actor and singer, who has appeared in several television series and films, and is best known for his portrayal of Andrew Van de Kamp on ABC's '' Desperate Housewives'', and as Lionel Gr ...
/
Justin Bradley
Justin Bradley is a Canadian former actor.
Early life
He started his career at the age of six, modelling on various department store advertisements. Bradley also appeared in commercials for McDonald's, Danone and Canadian Tire as a child.
C ...
) - Jesse is the dumbest kid in the school, and he is often verbally picked on by his friends, including Vinnie, because his mother treats him like a baby. Whenever he has a hard task or homework to do, he usually gets out of it by telling a lie to Miss Graves or sometimes his mother, but both of them catch on and give him several punishments. Jesse is bald and wears an orange sweater with blue jeans.
*Vincent "Vinnie" Nasta (voiced by
Andrew Lawrence/
Pamela Adlon
Pamela Fionna Adlon (; ; born July 9, 1966) is an American actress. She is known for voicing Bobby Hill in the animated comedy series ''King of the Hill'' (1997–2010), for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award. She also voiced Baloo in '' Jung ...
) - Vinnie is the prankster of the class. He is a tall
Italian-American
Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...
boy who likes to pull
pranks
A practical joke, or prank, is a mischievous trick played on someone, generally causing the victim to experience embarrassment, perplexity, confusion, or discomfort.Marsh, Moira. 2015. ''Practically Joking''. Logan: Utah State University Press. ...
on people. Even Miss Graves. Based on that, he tends to be a thorn in her side, to the point where she so often threatens to call his mother on him whenever he tries them on her. Vinnie wears a football jersey and has spiky brown hair. He is also friends with Jesse, and the two pull pranks together on some reason, although sometimes he picks on Jesse mainly due to how his mother treats him. Vinnie has an older brother named Tony, whose past school projects Vinnie often tries to pass as his own but Miss Graves always remembers having already evaluated them during Tony's time. Vinnie once lost his friends when they learned his aunt married Mr. Besser but fortunately the wedding was short-lived.
*Polly McShane (voiced by
Colleen O'Shaughnessey
Colleen Ann O'Shaughnessey (born September 15, 1971) is an American voice actress. She is best known as the voice of Sora Takenouchi in the ''Digimon'' anime, Jazz Fenton in ''Danny Phantom'', Wasp in '' The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes'' ...
) - Polly, a proud
Lithuanian-
American, is considered a "teacher's pet" in both demeanor and appearance. Polly is extremely intelligent (she is highly gifted and earned a score of 152 SD 15 - 99.97365 percentile - on the IQ test as was revealed in the episode HIQ) and has glasses, brown hair and a red and blue-striped dress. The other children, including the staff, can usually detect her presence due to her constant yodeling and obnoxious and intense disposition, especially on a count of her loud voice. She has an obsession with spoons. She is also well known for wanting to be the life of the party and be on top of everything, and for being a gossip and tattletale to the heads of the class over other children she catches behaving badly. For all of these reasons, she is a major thorn in the flesh of everyone, especially Nancy and Miss Graves. She has a pet goat named Schnitzy.
*Penny Grant (voiced by
Tara Strong
Tara Lyn Strong (née Charendoff; born February 12, 1973) is a Canadian-American actress. She is known for her voice work in animation, websites, and video games. Strong's voice roles include animated series such as '' The New Batman Adventure ...
) - Penny is one of the wealthiest girls in the entire school, as well as a very charitable and kind person. Penny is not a
snob
''Snob'' is a pejorative term for a person who believes there is a correlation between social status (including physical appearance) and human worth.De Botton, A. (2004), ''Status Anxiety''. London: Hamish Hamilton ''Snob'' also refers to a per ...
despite the common stereotype following rich kids in modern-day animation. She has blonde hair and blue eyes that helps her fit in very nicely. She is faithful and voluntarily participate to social programs in order to help other people. Also she is intelligent, hard working and a bright student, often earning the best results on the class. Nancy and the other girls from the class try to befriend her because of how wealthy and kind she is, but sometimes Penny doesn't even realize that she is rich, and that Nancy and the other girls are always trying to befriend her (although she doesn't despise them).
*Arthur Kenneth Van Der Wall (voiced by
Christopher Marquette) - An upper-class
Dutch-American
Dutch Americans ( nl, Nederlandse Amerikanen) are Americans of Dutch descent whose ancestors came from the Netherlands in the recent or distant past. Dutch settlement in the Americas started in 1613 with New Amsterdam, which was exchanged with ...
boy who is usually attempting to sell abnormally extravagant goods to the other children in the class. He has auburn hair and wears a blue suit. He is smart, clever and practical but also has a very shy personality. He often tries to profit from others, but usually his plans fail.
*Freddie Fay (voiced by
Bryton McClure
Bryton McClure (born August 17, 1986), also credited as Bryton James and Mononymous person, mononymously as Bryton, is an American musical theatre, film and television actor. As a child actor, he played List of Family Matters characters#Richie Cr ...
) - Freddie is basically classified as a
nerd
A nerd is a person seen as overly intellectual, obsessive, introverted or lacking social skills. Such a person may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, little known, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly tec ...
boy in the school and he often bemoans that fact. He has glasses, black hair, wears a yellow shirt and sticks out as an easily found school nerd. He works very hard to have good results and is an A− student. Being silly is frequently mocked by the others, especially Vinnie and Jesse, or fooled by Arthur who sometimes uses him in his plans. E.g. in one episode everyone picked on him because they thought he had wet his pants, when actually the water fountain sprayed him by accident.
*Charlie (voiced by Crystal Scales) - An
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
boy who looks slightly similar to Sanjay, with dark hair and a red shirt. He often wins what Nancy should have won. In one episode, the class switched seats to fool Mr. Besser when he became a substitute teacher, and when Nancy's report was worth an A, Mr. Besser mistook her for Charlie due to the seating arrangement plans (since he knew few of the students' names except for Jesse and Vinnie, whom he often put in detention). And when Jesse got glasses that he couldn't see with, he was the swing vote between Nancy and Charlie, and, while intending to vote for Nancy, voted for Charlie by mistake because he couldn't see the names clearly.
*Jordan (voiced by Tara Strong) - A
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
-
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
girl who is very rich, but keeps that in a secret. Nancy finds out in one episode, promising Jordan to keep the secret out of fear her friends will think she's a snob. To keep them from knowing, she did not invite anyone to her house, which caused some people to think she's poor. However, when Nancy bragged so much about having a wealthy friend (without telling anyone she was referring to Jordan) her other friends started avoiding her like Jordan feared would happen to her if they knew she was wealthy.
*Gabrielle (voiced by
Olivia Hack Olivia may refer to:
People
* Olivia (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Olivia (singer) (Olivia Longott, born 1981), American singer
* Olívia (basketball) (Carlos Henrique Rodrigues do Nascimento, born 197 ...
) - A girl who is usually seen with Jordan and Nancy. She mostly goes along with everything Jordan thinks or does, and although she is Nancy's friend, sometimes argues with her.
*Tillie (voiced by
Tifanie Christun
Tifanie Christun (born February 27, 1972) is an American voice actress. She is the daughter of Ray Lenhart and Cheryl Saban, the stepdaughter of Haim Saban, and the sister of Heidi Lenhart. She is also known as Tifany Lenhart and Tiffany Christ ...
) - Another of Nancy's friends, a tall girl with brown hair who is somewhat self-absorbed.
*Jenny (voiced by
Jane Woods
Jane Haycock Woods (October 10, 1946 – July 18, 2022) was an American educator and Republican politician who served as a member of the Virginia Senate from 1992 to 2000, and Virginia House of Delegates from 1988 to 1992.
Biography
She was fo ...
) - A girl with red glasses who doesn't have much participation in the class.
*Piggy McCall (voiced by Justin Jon Ross) - A slightly fat boy with glasses who is also a minor character, and doesn't interact much with the others.
*Melanie Bellanchof (voiced by
Debi Derryberry
Debi Derryberry is an American voice actress who has provided voices for a number of animations and video games.
Biography
Derryberry was born in Indio, California to a family of Hungarian Jewish descent. Her grandparents were Holocaust surviv ...
) - A new student to the school, she is Mrs. Bellanchof's daughter, her parents are either divorced or split up, as Melanie comes to town to live with her mother. She doesn't like living with her, and when referring to anything that she doesn't like will say either "Don't know", "Don't care" or "Smells". At her house, she is mostly seen on the phone talking to a friend from her old school named Gloria.
Other kids
*Sanjay (voiced by Tara Strong) - An Indian-American student with dark brown hair, a maroon shirt, and speaks with an accent, who looks slightly similar to Charlie. He is often irritated by Polly.
*Mary-Ellen (voiced by
Colleen O'Shaughnessey
Colleen Ann O'Shaughnessey (born September 15, 1971) is an American voice actress. She is best known as the voice of Sora Takenouchi in the ''Digimon'' anime, Jazz Fenton in ''Danny Phantom'', Wasp in '' The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes'' ...
) - A girl who is one of Nancy's friends. Doesn't have much participation in the series.
*Joey Tuna - A tall boy who is often seen sitting next to Jesse in the series. Another character that doesn't have much participation in the series.
*Zack (voiced by Sam Saletta) - The bully of the school and a recurring antagonist.
Adults
*Miss Gracie Graves (voiced by
April Winchell) - Miss Gracie Graves is a really good teacher. She acts as the voice of reason, which is why most of her students go to her whenever they seek help or advice.
*Mr. Stuart Besser (voiced by
Rodger Bumpass
Rodger Bumpass (born November 20, 1951) is an American actor. He is known for his long-running role as Squidward Tentacles on the American animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. He voices several other characters on the show as ...
) - Mr. Stuart Besser is the incompetent principal of the school. Noted for his stupidity and overweight stature, he is often satirized, whether it be vocal or written, by his students. His negligence and ignorance serves as recurring comic relief within the television show. Mr. Besser was once married to Vinnie's aunt, much to the shock of both males (Vinnie didn't know Mr. Besser was his aunt's husband and Mr. Besser didn't know Vinnie is his wife's nephew until the two of them met during the wedding party) but the wedding ended when she learned he expected to live at her expenses. Mr. Besser was oblivious to the fact Vinnie didn't like being his nephew.
*Nurse Pitts (voiced by
Lori Alan
Lori Alan (born July 18, 1966) is an American actress and voice actress. She has played a long-running role as Pearl Krabs on the animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. She also voiced Diane Simmons on ''Family Guy'', the Invisible ...
) - The school nurse. She's obsessed with illness and also talks a lot about death. The kids, as well as the teachers, are scared of her.
*Coach (voiced by
Bruce Dinsmore) - The school gym teacher.
*Roberta McCoy (voiced by
Edie McClurg
Edith Marie McClurg (born July 23, 1945) is an American actress and comedian. She has played supporting roles in the films ''Carrie'' (1976), ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' (1986), and ''Elvira: Mistress of the Dark'' (1988), and bit parts in ' ...
) - Jesse's overprotective mother. She usually treats Jesse like a baby and embarrasses him near his friends who sometimes mock him.
*Mrs. Amy Bellanchof (voiced by
Pauline Little
Pauline Little (born c. 1958) is a Scottish-born Canadian voice, film, and television actress who currently resides in Montreal, Quebec.
She voices the twins Lotus and Jasmine in ''The Little Flying Bears'', Maya in '' Maya the Bee'', Francine ...
) - Melanie's mother who is a teacher attending Melanie's new school. However, as she didn't have a lesson plan, her students made a bit progress, which put her on the verge of getting fired. Although Miss Graves helped her improve her class by sharing her lesson plan, Mrs. Bellanchof dishonestly passed Miss Graves' plan as her own to win an award. In other acts that show her lack of honesty, she got custody of her daughter by lying to the judge about which parent Melanie would rather live with, and used her position at the school to have her daughter join the cheerleading squad despite Melanie trying to tell her she doesn't want to be a cheerleader. She also loses her temper easily, especially when Melanie complains and tells her she wants to go back to live with her father, pulling her hair and screaming when she is overly angry or stressed.
*Mrs. Francis (voiced by
April Winchell) - Nancy's mother.
Cameo adults
*Mrs. Myerson (voiced by
April Winchell) - She is a stout woman with a very pleasant and respectable disposition. She wears a pink dress and has blonde hair. She lives in a neighborhood around the school. She briefly appears a few times in the episode "Bing, Bing, Bing, and a Shot".
*Mr. Miller (voiced by
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. He began ...
) - He is the pool official of a pool in Miami that Nancy goes to visit. He gives her a hard time about things like hygiene. He appears in the episode "Squeezed Out".
Episodes
Season 1 (2000)
Season 2 (2000–01)
Home media
Canada
On April 8, 2003, CinéGroupe Star released a set of three VHS tapes called "Double Trouble"/"Sacré Délire", which featured an episode each from this show and ''
What's with Andy?
''What's with Andy?'' (''Sacré Andy !'' in French) is an animated children's television series loosely based on the semi-autobiographical ''Just!'' book series by Australian author Andy Griffiths. The animated series was primarily produced by Can ...
'', alongside a
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...
from the ''
Pig City'' tie-in album "Reggie and the Rashers". Volume 1 featured the episode "Over the River and Through the Swamp", Volume 2 featured the episode "All Polly All The Day", and Volume 3 featured the episode "The Anti-Mucous Forming, Artery Clogging, Energy Zapping Diet". The releases were sold in separate English and French versions,
respectively.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kids From Room 402
1990s American animated television series
2000s American animated television series
1999 American television series debuts
2001 American television series endings
1990s Canadian animated television series
2000s Canadian animated television series
1999 Canadian television series debuts
2001 Canadian television series endings
American television shows based on children's books
American children's animated comedy television series
Canadian children's animated comedy television series
Canadian television shows based on children's books
Jetix original programming
Fox Family Channel original programming
Animated television series about children
English-language television shows
Teletoon original programming
Television shows filmed in Montreal
Television series by Saban Entertainment